Research Catalog

Title

Writing life : celebrated Canadian and international authors on writing and life / edited by Constance Rooke.

Publication

Toronto : McClelland & Sewart, c2006.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Rooke, Constance, 1942-2008
• PEN (Organization). Canadian Centre dedicatee.

Description

xix, 449 p.; 23 cm.

Summary

"In Writing Life, fifty celebrated authors reveal surprising truths about what it means to be a writer, and about the sparks that can result when life and writing intersect - and sometimes collide. Provocative, candid, often very funny, personal, and passionately engaged, this inspired collection will take readers deep into the heart of the writing life." "Margaret Atwood revisits how she came to write five of her novels; Russell Banks reveals why he doesn't do research; John Berger and Michael Ondaatje discuss gatecrashing characters and the magical instant when a work begins; Joseph Boyden takes time out from promoting his first novel to go moose-hunting; Margaret Drabble considers the "wickedness" of stealing material from real life; Howard Engel describes the stroke that took away his ability to read, and where that left him as a writer; Yann Martel reflects on the impossible, necessary challenge of writing about the Holocaust; Lisa Moore shows how crucial the mess and vitality of family life are to her writing; Alice Munro shares why she might "give up" writing; Rosemary Sullivan negotiates the risks and responsibilities that come with telling the story of a life; Susan Swan wrestles with historical fact, fiction, and Casanova. Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET.

Alternative Title

• Writinglife
• Celebrated Canadian and international authors on writing and life

Subject

• 1900-2099
• Canadian essays > 21st century
• Authorship
• Autobiography > Literary collections
• Authors, Canadian > 20th century > Biography
• Canadian essays (English) > 21st century
• Authors, Canadian (English) > 20th century
• Essais canadiens-anglais > 21e siècle
• Art d'écrire
• Autobiographie > Anthologies
• Écrivains canadiens-anglais > 20e siècle

Genre/Form

• collective biographies.
• Literature
• Biographies
• Literary collections
• Biographies.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

• Are you a writer and other unanswerable questions / André Alexis -- Five visits to the word hoard / Margaret Atwood -- On research / Russell Banks -- And you arrive on the other side with nothing / David Bergen -- A conversation / John Berger and Michael Ondaatje -- The twilight of the gods / George Bowering -- Famous writers / Marilyn Bowering -- Killing a rock / Joseph Boyden -- So this is the world, & here I am in it / Di Brandt -- Paul Valéry's shoe : a story about storytelling / Barry Callaghan -- On behaving badly / Lynn Coady -- Writing together / Susan Coyne -- The fish, the fish / Michael Crummey -- The wickedness of fiction / Margaret Drabble -- From another vein / Bernice Eisenstein -- Stroking the writer / Howard Engel -- The man with the spade / Damon Galgut -- By accident : a young writer's life / Jonathan Garfinkel -- The golden dolphin, or, A very short history of public literary readings / Greg Gatenby -- Truth takes up room in the imagination / Camilla Gibb --^
• Talking to the dead / Charlotte Gray -- My debt to D.H. Lawrence / Elizabeth Hay -- Writing and the world replaced / Michael Helm -- Mid-October day / Sheila Heti -- Dropping out / Annabel Lyon -- On not going to a party for Ian McEwan / David Macfarlane -- Some thoughts on writing / Alistair MacLeod -- Writing history / Margaret MacMillan -- Room for the shadow / Alberto Manguel -- Writing death / Yann Martel -- The least of it / Anne Michaels -- Welcome to Acadan / Rohinton Mistry -- Yolk / Lisa Moore -- Poetry lesson / Shani Mootoo -- Writing, or, Giving up writing / Alice Munro -- Inventing herself / Susan Musgrave -- The master storyteller / Anna Porter -- The author reading that made me a woman / Eden Robinson -- On the reader : an excerpt from an essay in progress / Marilynne Robinson -- Turning to crime / Peter Robinson -- Writing in the no-go zone / John Ralston Saul -- Opening for Mr. Davies / Shyam Selvadurai -- Flying / Russell Smith -- Writing lives / Rosemary Sullivan --^
• The education of a novelist : making things up and getting them right / Susan Swan -- After the flood / Madeleine Thien -- Writing sisters / Jane Urquhart -- A Galapagos wave strikes Newfoundland / Michael Winter -- The writing family : trimming curtains the length of light / Patricia Young.

ISBN

0771076258

LCCN

• ^^2006462310
• 9780771076251

OCLC

• 62430539
• SCSB-11520456

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library